A Left parties-civil society organizations delegation led by
CPI-M politbureau member Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the All-India
Kisan Sabha, has told President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee that there is a “brazen
attempt” on the part of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to “forcibly evict”
thousands of Narmada dam oustees from their villages under the pretext of the
Supreme Court order dated February 8, 2017.

Pointing out that the oustees are sought to be evicted
forcibly before July 31, the delegation said, the state government is “ignoring”
the Supreme Court order of providing “compensation and complete rehabilitation
of the dam-affected villages”. Others who were in the delegation were Annie
Raja of the National Federation of Indian Women and Vimal Bhai and Himshi
Singh of the National Alliance of People’s Movements.

During the meeting, Himshi Singh gave crucial statistics, alleging, “the Madhya Pradesh government is manipulating its own statistics of the Action Taken Report- 2008 which gives a count of 31,180 families affected by the Narmada dam. It has now drastically reduced the number in the recently issued Gazette, 2017 by 18,346”.

A memorandum submitted by the delegation said, as per the
orders of Supreme Court, the last date for giving compensation and ensuring
complete rehabilitation was May 8, 2017, but till now, the state government
has not done any survey which could list project affected families entitled to
compensation and rehabilitation.

The memorandum wondered, how the state government could even
think of evicting people without rehabilitation, insisting, this was a clear
contempt of spirit of court orders and judgments along with the murder of
constitutional rights of project-affected families.

Pointing out that the “forcible eviction” would prove to be
a disaster, as families are without alternative land, livelihood and livable
rehabilitation sites, Mollah told the President that he visited the
Narmada Valley as a fact-finding team, and found that their life and culture was
facing the threats of submergence.

“Our report brings out the dismal conditions of the project
affected families, resettlement sites, and corruption in payment of
compensations. As many as 192 villages, 1 town, 40,000 families and more than 2
lakh people will be affected”, Mollah contended, adding, “If the government
does not take proper action in rehabilitating the affected families, the
condition of the outsees in Madhya Pradesh would become as bad as the oustees
of Gujarat or Maharashtra.”

Annie Raja claimed, “If the dam’s gates are closed down without
proper rehabilitation, it will be remembered as a mass murder in human history.
After the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Narmada Valley for
Narmada Seva Yatra, the process of intimidation and eviction has suddenly been speeded.”

Vimal Bhai explained the environmental impact in the form of
chlorofluorocarbon – an organic compound that contains carbon, chlorine, and
fluorine, produced as volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane. Pointing out that this is happening “due to the
submergence of lakhs of trees”, he also gave
details of the condition of rehabilitation sites, which still lacked basic
amenities, cracks on houses due to black soil and no drinking water
availability.

The meeting, which took place ahead of the Rally for the
Valley from June 5 to 7, 2017, reportedly saw President of India assure
the delegation that he would “look into the matter and initiate necessary
actions.”